‘Parked in their half’: Burton Albion’s frustration after ‘harsh’ Portsmouth defeat

Dino Maamria believes Pompey defeat was rough justice on his side.

But the Burton Albion boss feels his side were the masters of their own downfall, as they slipped to a 2-0 reverse at the Pirelli Stadium.

John Mousinho’s side returned to winning ways against the Brewers, after their 27-game unbeaten run in the league came to a close against Blackpool on Saturday.

Maamria believes Burton were much the better outfit for significant periods of the game, but let themselves down with their defending.

He told Burton’s official site: ‘The result was very harsh on us. For 37 minutes we were well on top of the game; asked them questions and their keeper made an unbelievable save from Kwadwo Baah and then we made a bad decision and gave them a penalty.

‘That changed the game and when you give a team like Portsmouth a leg up it makes life very difficult.

‘Then we started the second half on the front foot, parked in their half but we couldn’t get a goal and then they scored from transition. That’s game over against these teams when you give them goals like we have tonight.

‘But I can’t complain about the performance which was excellent.

‘The story of tonight was that we shot ourselves in the foot twice. It was one of those nights where we fell short but not through lack of effort. We needed a goal but weren’t clinical enough in the final third. They defended their goal well, but we should have asked their keeper more questions.’

Burton have a slew of injury problems, particularly in defensive areas, but are hopeful they will be at least partially alleviated, with just under a week until their next outing at Wrexham in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

He added: ‘We will get some training in and hopefully get John Brayford back for Wrexham on Tuesday.

‘We will pick our strongest team and go and look to win the game as we did against Mansfield.’